Two Americans are sick with worry after Turks and Caicos arrests

Thursday

May 16, 2013 at 7:04 PM

Sarasotan and Texan have had medical repercussions after being accused of carrying single bullets in their bags.

By MICHAEL POLLICK

Two older Americans — arrested separately for carrying one bullet each in their baggage as they attempted to return home from Turks and Caicos Islands last month — have each experienced medical repercussions in the wake of their ordeals.

Cathy Davis, 60, of Dallas was arrested on her way out of Turks and Caicos on April 25 and jailed overnight.

She “has since suffered debilitating panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, and acute stress disorder characterized by flashbacks, nightmares, memory loss and uncontrollable thoughts leading to severe anxiety,” her son told the governor of the islands in a May 14 letter obtained by the Herald-Tribune.

Horace Norrell, an 80-year-old retired Sarasota surgeon, had a pacemaker implanted Monday to regulate his heart rate after he collapsed in his garage on May 10. He was jailed for three nights after an airport security guard allegedly found a bullet in his luggage April 26 after Norrell checked it in with American Airlines.

Both are under orders to return to Grand Turk Island on June 7 to determine if they should stand trial. Seen as criminal defendants at the moment, each faces five years in prison if found guilty.

The judge can decide to throw the cases out or set a trial date for either case.

Davis' son, Lance Davis, a physician, said his mother “did not see the guard search her bag.” He asked the islands' governor, Damian Roderic “Ric” Todd, in a letter to have the charges against her dropped immediately.

In a response dated Thursday, Todd's deputy head of mission Philip Rushbrook, wrote that “we must allow the legal process to run its course.”

“Judicial proceedings are conducted in the absence of political or government intervention,” Rushbrook wrote.

The island group's elected premier, Rufus Ewing, made similar statements in a news release on Monday, but added that “should there be any evidence of foul play uncovered during the course of the investigation, the relevant authorities will take all necessary steps to ensure that justice is served.”

Norrell had the pacemaker implanted the day he was scheduled to meet in Tampa with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson regarding the separate but parallel criminal charges Norrell and Cathy Davis face. The meeting has not been rescheduled, but Nelson has been nudging authorities to rethink the arrests and charges.

Norrell was released Tuesday and is back at home in Sarasota, he said Thursday.

“It was my wife's birthday,” he said of the day he collapsed. “I was standing in the garage. The next thing I know I was lying on the floor and my wife was calling my name.

“I have never had any symptoms before,” Norrell said.

Norrell was jailed at Chalk Sound Police Station last month before he could appear before a judge and pay a cash bail of $4,000.

He is asking his and Davis' representatives in Congress — Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, and Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth — to write Turks authorities on their behalf.